Great lines from the documentary Enlighten Up!:
Nick: ”When I’m twisting myself into a pretzel in the yoga studio, I’m thinking, ‘What the hell is the connection between this and enlightenment?’”
Norman Allen: ”Nothin. Absolutely nothin.”
Check out these clips:
I found these clips really fascinating and liberating. They both reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about lately…
I think we are too often told that practices like yoga SHOULD do this or that for our lives. We’re told how to act, where we should go and what we should achieve through these practices with a universal explanation. Thankfully, we are all so amazingly different that universal explanations don’t work.
It probably took me a good 3 years of practicing to finally realize that it was ok for me to just BE ME during yoga. I didn’t need to attain some level of heightened awareness, I didn’t need to eat only raw foods to fit in, I didn’t need to speak in life metaphors referencing botanicals or metaphysical elements… I realized that there wasn’t a “right” way or reason to practice yoga. We can all practice for different reasons and get wonderful benefits. And we can also not practice yoga and receive those same benefits from other healthy activities.
Your thoughts? And if you’ve found benefits through other types of practices, please share 
That second clip totally got me thinking about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs – physical safety/well-being has to be intact before an individual can move on to any sort of spiritual development.
Agreed Bethany. I think Maslow was right on with that pyramid. It’s hard to think about anything spiritual when you’re fighting for basic survival needs. Makes me think of the repercussions of our current health care system too…
I watched Enlighten Up! this weekend. I thought it had a clever premise, but by the end of it, I was annoyed with both Nick and Katie. Anyone seen the other Yoga documentary, Yoga, Inc.? You can see it here for free (if you can put up with the annoying breaks for ads).
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/yoga_inc/.
I actually prefer to nuture my spiritual side the old-fashioned way–by going to church–for many different reasons. For me, yoga, especially its more philosophical elements (the yamas and niyamas)as a complement rather than a substitute for a more traditional religious community.
Wendy, I totally agree! Nick was annoying by the end! And so true tho regarding the second clip. We should really be thinking about that if we want our country to move in a positive direction. If we have so mant people worried abt such basic needs, how can we expect an enlightened country?